Andrew McRae examines the relation between literature and politics at a pivotal moment in English history.

Autorentext
Andrew McRae is Senior Lecturer in the School of English at the University of Exeter. He is the author of God Speed the Plough: the Representation of Agrarian England, 15001660 (Cambridge, 1996) and Renaissance Drama (2003), and co-editor of The Writing of Rural England 15001800 (2003).

Zusammenfassung
From his analysis of these texts, McRae argues that satire, as the pre-eminent literary mode of discrimination and stigmatisation, helped people make sense of the confusing political conditions of the early Stuart era. It did so partly through personal attacks and partly also through sophisticated interventions into ongoing political and ideological debates.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements; Conventions; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. Personal Politics: 1. The culture of early Stuart libelling; 2. Contesting identities: libels and the early Stuart politician; Part II. Public Politics: 3. Freeing the tongue and the heart: satire and the political subject; 4. Discourses of discrimination: political satire in the 1620s; Part III. The Politics of Division: 5. Satire and sycophancy: Richard Corbett and early Stuart Royalism; 6. Stigmatising Prynne: Puritanism and politics in the 1630s; Epilogue: early Stuart satire and the Civil War; Bibliography; Index.